Computer-aided design (CAD), and design automation tools incorporating computer simulation, have become indispensable in the design and development of optical, opto-electronic, and electronic systems and components. The ability to simulate a design before committing to the expense of construction and testing has resulted in great savings in cost and development time. Essential to the effectiveness of simulation tools is the availability of models of the individual components that accurately reflect the characteristics of real, commercially available devices. End users of simulation software may construct such models for themselves by either measuring the properties of components for themselves, or by extracting the required data from manufacturers' product literature. These approaches suffer from significant disadvantages. Experimental characterization requires the acquisition of sample components, access to a suitably equipped test and measurement laboratory, and furthermore is a time-consuming process. And product literature may not contain sufficient information to construct suitably accurate models, since manufacturers often consider detailed technical data to be valuable proprietary information. Additionally, a system in which all end users are replicating these tasks is inefficient, and leads to generally increased costs of production.
It is therefore preferable that simulation models of components and systems are developed and provided by their manufacturers rather than by the end users. Component and system vendors, for their part, wish to obtain a return on their investment in this development in the form of improved access to target markets and increased sales. In some markets formal or de facto standards may emerge that define a widely accepted format for the exchange of models such that a single model can be developed that will be compatible with most simulation software. This is particularly the case when the market is very large and relatively mature. In emerging and smaller markets, there are often fewer simulation products available, and these may be relatively expensive and less widely deployed. Furthermore, these products may support competing proprietary format models.
In such markets there is therefore a need that has not been previously addressed for software and methods that enable component and system vendors to leverage their investment in simulation models in the marketing of their products even when customers do not own compatible simulation software. In particular, a significant benefit can be obtained by vendors if they are able to distribute simulation models of their products to potential customers in a form whereby the customers are able to run the models and thus assess the suitability of the products for their applications. However, this has not been generally possible in the past unless the customers also own or have access to the simulation software tools required in order to run the models. As previously mentioned, in markets in which such software is expensive and not widely deployed, it is likely that a significant number of potential customers will not own or have access to suitable simulation software, thus impacting adversely upon the vendors' ability use simulation models as a means of promoting and marketing their products.
One approach to the problem of making a basic simulation capability widely available at a nominal cost that has been employed in the past is the distribution of a “demonstration”, “restricted” or “light” version of the simulation software tool. In this method, a version of the tool is distributed for free, or at nominal cost, that has been modified to restrict its functionality in some specified manner. For example, the “demonstration” tool may have the full functionality of the commercial tool with the exception that the standard “save” feature is disabled. In such a case, the tool is useful for trial purposes, or for running pre-existing set-ups, but cannot practically be used for ongoing design and development work, for which purpose a full commercial version of the tool must be purchased.
However, the distribution of a “demonstration” version of the software does not satisfactorily address the needs of component and systems vendors who wish to use simulation models for the marketing and promotion of their own products. “Demonstration” software is primarily distributed as a means for the developer of the simulation software to promote and market the software tool itself. As such, it is unsuitable as a marketing aid for components and systems vendors for reasons including the following. First, “demonstration” software is substantially similar in appearance and use to the full commercial version of the software. It is thus relatively complex software that requires a significant learning curve by the end user, which acts as a disincentive to using it simply to view a vendor's promotional material. Second, while “demonstration” software has some restrictions built in, it does not generally prevent the user from constructing simulation set-ups, or modifying pre-existing ones, as a means of testing the functionality of the software. This is a disadvantage for a vendor who naturally wishes to prevent the end user from using a promotional model in an uncontrolled and unintended manner that may result in the capabilities of a component or system being misrepresented. Third, even a restricted “demonstration” version of a powerful simulation software product is typically a major application that requires significant resources, including memory and hard-disk storage, and therefore most users would be unwilling to install such a package on their computers simply as a means to view vendor promotional material.
There exists therefore a need for an improved method of distributing runnable simulation models for marketing and promotional purposes that avoids the disadvantages of the existing methods that rely on the use of a “demonstration”, “restricted” or “light” version of a simulation software tool.